For DeSantis, Trump's nod also means cash from big GOP donors

John Kennedy GateHouse Capital Bureau @JKennedyReport

Saturday

Aug 4, 2018 at 3:48 PMAug 4, 2018 at 9:02 PM

TALLAHASSEE – President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Republican Ron DeSantis for Florida governor included not only a massive rally in Tampa last week - it also brought a fresh torrent of cash to the campaign from top GOP donors nationwide.

Trump’s early morning tweet June 22 — saying that DeSantis “will be a Great Governor & has my full Endorsement” — swiftly lead to $500,000 in contributions from the GOP’s single biggest spenders, Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam.

Another $500,000 also arrived last month from Laura Perlmutter, a Trump inauguration committee member, whose husband, Ike, is chair of Marvel Entertainment.

Other big GOP contributors also are getting on board with Trump’s formal backing of the Palm Coast congressman over Republican rival Adam Putnam in the Aug. 28 primary, turning the usual in-state focus of the governor’s contest into a national affair.

Even former Gov. Jeb Bush, the son of one president and the brother of another, relied chiefly on Florida financing – not national cash – for his campaigns.

“This is the first time in my memory that I’ve seen it where we have a candidate for governor who can tap this kind of rich vein of money across the country,” said Brian Ballard, Trump’s lobbyist in Tallahassee and a major Florida fundraiser for the president’s campaign, who hasn’t taken sides in DeSantis-Putnam primary.

“What’s happening here is really unique,” Ballard said.

As a member of Congress and frequent Fox News guest, DeSantis already had a national profile which was pulling out-of-state money to his campaign. But once Trump left no doubt who he favored in the race, more cash arrived from the GOP’s top givers.

Billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch, who Trump is now feuding with over trade policy, still turned to DeSantis after the June 22 tweet, pouring in almost $250,000 last month for digital advertising and mailers for the candidate through their Freedom Partners PAC.

Others spending on DeSantis in recent weeks include venture capitalist Joe Childs, whose $100,000 donation June 29 brought to $503,000 his stake in the candidate. The same day, Silicon Valley real estate investor Carl Berg cut a $100,000 check and three weeks later Ahmad Khawaja, a controversial online payment processor, sent $10,000, bringing his DeSantis contributions to almost $200,000.

Indeed, the 30 Republican donors who the Center for Responsive Politics has named as the top federal contributors to GOP candidates this election cycle have pumped more than $3 million into the DeSantis campaign.

But DeSantis, 39, may need the national help.

Putnam, 44, is the two-term state Agriculture Commissioner, first elected to the Florida House at age 22 and later Congress – a Florida officeholder half his life.

Putnam's Florida Grown political action committee has been bankrolled many of the Florida GOP's biggest donors and industry allies, including U.S. Sugar Corp., Walt Disney World, Florida Power & Light, the private-prison Geo Group, and agri-businesses long allied with the Bartow son of a cattle ranching family.

Putnam has raised about $36 million for his campaign, more than double DeSantis’s total. Even when Trump hinted in December that he supported DeSantis, tweeting he would make a “GREAT Governor of Florida,” Putnam managed to stay on top in many polls.

But that changed dramatically by the time Trump’s June 22 tweet was sent, followed by Tuesday night’s rally in Tampa that drew roughly 10,000 people.

“There’s no question Trump’s endorsement helps DeSantis in many ways, including campaign financing,” said state Rep. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who was co-chair of Trump’s presidential campaign in Florida.

Unlike the president, Gruters is remaining neutral in the Republican primary for governor. But he said Trump’s is signaling to national donors to send checks DeSantis’ way.

The primary’s closing weeks are likely to see more money flowing that way, possibly with some Putnam backers looking to crossover, Gruters said.

“It becomes like how the New York Yankees can attract fans, because they’re seen as a winning team,” Gruters said.

With the national buzz around DeSantis, Putnam has stepped up his TV attacks on his rival as disconnected from Florida issues, and also is turning to grassroots events that heighten his “Florida First” pitch.

“We don’t want to import Washington dysfunction into the state of Florida,” Putnam said during his own Fox News appearance the day after Trump’s Tampa rally.

Democrats see DeSantis’s tie to Trump as helping them capture Florida centrist voters this fall.

“DeSantis is the far right billionaire whisperer and he has spent this campaign courting special corporate interests rather than talking to Florida voters,” said Kevin Donohoe, a Florida Democratic Party spokesman.

While DeSantis appears to be the darling of national GOP donors, many Florida Republican activists and businesses now backing Putnam easily could rally around whoever the nominee is heading into the Nov. 6 general election.

That is what happened in 2010, when first-time candidate Rick Scott spent $50 million of his own money in a Republican primary upset of Attorney General Bill McCollum, the favorite of the Republican establishment for governor.

Within days of Scott’s victory, he was collecting checks from Tallahassee lobbyists and industry groups he had railed against during the primary campaign.

“I think the traditional resources that the Republican nominee for governor has will be at (DeSantis’s) disposal,” Ballard said. “But I think what we can bring uniquely to the table, because of the president’s support, is this national finance operation.

“But truthfully, until the president got involved, whatever national money he was getting just wasn’t moving the needle much for him,” he said.

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